Enough time?

[stanfordhereiam]

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Hi guys!

I was wondering how people are able to manage time well. In the fall I have a full course load, I will be studying for the MCAT, have a TA position in microbiology lab, and church activities on the weekend. I tried to apply to research labs, and told them the maximum time commitment I can give during a week is 6 hours. However, those professors have either not responded, told me there are no open positions, or let me know that the time commitment is too less to achieve something. How are you guys able to fit everything on your plate and still keep a high gpa? I feel already burned out 🙁

Thanks guys!

 

[Dr. Stalker]

Hi guys!

I was wondering how people are able to manage time well. In the fall I have a full course load, I will be studying for the MCAT, have a TA position in microbiology lab, and church activities on the weekend. I tried to apply to research labs, and told them the maximum time commitment I can give during a week is 6 hours. However, those professors have either not responded, told me there are no open positions, or let me know that the time commitment is too less to achieve something. How are you guys able to fit everything on your plate and still keep a high gpa? I feel already burned out 🙁

Thanks guys!

OP, the art of balancing time is pivotal for a pre-med. You're not the only person in this spot though! I felt that way too. I was taking 18 credits, TA, research, had club meetings to attend and stuff to do cause I was an officer, along with weekly volunteering. Its important to keep things in perspective.

1. Your grades are more important. While others may attack me for saying your EC's aren't as important, that's not true. Medical school mods on SDN have discussed that they use cutoffs to help filter applications. Having a 2.0 but 5k research hours won't win you an interview. Focus on your grades.
2. Balance some church activities on the weekend - can you limit that to maybe, 1 day and at most, 3 to 4 hours? If you can, that will help give you a lot of free time to catch up on homework, assignments, and studying.
3. As far as research goes, e-mailing is a bad approach. If you can, just go to a lab PI's office hours. Bring up your research interest. And then when hours and commitments come up, tell them you'd like to start limited with 4 to 5 hours per week (so this way, when they give you 6 hours of work you won't be drowning 😛). Then, during the summers, its customary to show up and do research a lot. 20 to 40 hours a week, and after you've proven yourself during the semester, lab mentors are usually happy with that summer performance, and expect you to scale it back during the school year. Maybe in the e-mails don't bring up the hourly commitment? While its honest and very nice of you, you're shooting yourself in the foot. The lab scheduling can be decided once you've met the PI and the grad student or post-doc you're working under. Hope this helped.